Chapter 28

290.Ibid., p. 23.

291.Hours of the Holy Sacrament, in Prose.

292.Letters of M. de St. Cyran, tom. i., let. 93.

293.Ibid.

294.Letter 32.

295.Letter 72.

296.Defence of the Chaplet of the H. Sacrament, p. 217.

297.Theol. Famil., lec. 15.

298.Ibid., p. 153.

299.John Mestrezat, Protestant minister of Paris, was born at Geneva in 1592 and died in May 1657. His Sermons on the Epistle to the Hebrews and other discourses, published after his death, are truly excellent. This learned and eloquent divine frequently engaged in controversy with the Romanists, and on one occasion managed the debate with such spirit that Cardinal Richelieu, taking hold of his shoulder, exclaimed: “This is the boldest minister in France.” (Bayle, Dict., art.Mestrezat.)

300.The statement of the Protestant faith, given in a preceding note, may suffice to show that it differs,toto cœlo, from that of Rome, as this is explained in the text. The leading fallacy of the Romish creed on this subject is the monstrous dogma of transubstantiation; the adoration of the host is merely a corollary. Calvinists and Lutherans though differing in their views of the ordinance, always agreed in acknowledging therealpresence of Christ in the eucharist, though they consider the sense in which Romanists interpret that term to be chargeable with blasphemy and absurdity.

301.Mascar., tr. 4, disp. 5, n. 284.

302.Ecclesiasticus (Apocrypha).

303.Freq. Com., 3 part, ch. 11.

304.Eccles. iv. 25 (Apocrypha).

305.Jean du Verger de Hauranne, the Abbé de Saint Cyranwas born at Bayonne in 1581. He was the intimate friend of Jansenius and a man of great piety and talents, but was seized as a heretic, and thrown by Cardinal Richelieu into the dungeon of Vincennes. After five years’ imprisonment he was released, but died shortly after, October, 11, 1643. By his followers, M. de Saint Cyran was reverenced as a saint and a martyr.

306.This Father Jarrige was a famous Jesuit, who became a Protestant, and published, after his separation from Rome, a book, entitled “Le Jesuite sur l’Echaffaut—The Jesuit on the Scaffold,” in which he treats his old friends with no mercy.

307.Misérables que vous êtes—one of the bitterest expressions which Pascal has applied to his opponents and one which they have deeply felt, but the full force of which can hardly be rendered into English.

308.With regard to this famous assembly at Bourg-Fontaine, in which it was alleged a conspiracy was formed by the Jansenists against the Christian religion, the curious reader may consult the work of M. Arnauld entitledMorale Pratique des Jesuites, vol. viii., where there is a detailed account of the whole proceedings. (Nicole, iv. 283.)

309.The Secret Chaplet of the most Holy Sacrament.—Such was the title of a very harmless piece of mystic devotion of three or four pages, the production of a nun of Port-Royal, called Sister Agnès de Saint Paul, which appeared in 1628. It excited the jealousy of the Archbishop of Sens—set the doctors of Paris and those of Louvain by the ears—occasioned a war of pamphlets and was finally carried by appeal to the Court of Rome, by which it was suppressed. (Nicole, iv. 302.) Agnès de St. Paul was the younger sister of the Mère Angélique Arnauld, and both of them were sisters of the celebrated M. Arnauld.

310.This refers to the celebrated miracles of “the Holy Thorn,” the first of which, said to have lately taken place in Port-Royal, was then creating much sensation. The facts are briefly these: A thorn, said to have belonged to the crown of thorns worn by our Saviour, having been presented, in March 1656, to the Monastery of Port-Royal, the nuns and their young pupils were permitted, each in turn, to kiss the relic. One of the latter, Margaret Perier, the niece of Pascal, a girl of about ten or eleven years of age, had been long troubled with a disease in the eye (fistula lachrymalis), which had baffled the skill of all the physicians of Paris. On approaching the holy thorn, she applied it to the diseased organ, and shortly thereafter exclaimed, to the surprise and delight of all the sisters, that her eye was completely cured. A certificate, signed by some of the most celebrated physicians, attested the cure as, in their opinion a miraculous one. The friends of Port-Royal, and none more than Pascal, were overjoyed at this interposition, which, being followed by other extraordinary cures, they regarded as a voice from heaven in favor of that institution. The Jesuits alone rejected it with ridicule, and published a piece, entitled “Rabat-joie, &c.—A Damper: or, Observations on what has lately happened at Port-Royal as to the affair of the Holy Thorn.” This was answered in November 1656, in a tract supposed to have been written by M. de Pont Château, who was called “the Clerk of the Holy Thorn,” assisted by Pascal. (Recueil de Pieces, &c. de Port-Royal, pp. 283–448.) It has been well observed, “that many laborious and voluminous discussions might have been saved, if the simple and very reasonable rule had been adopted of waiving investigation into the credibility of any narrative of supernatural or pretended supernatural events said to have taken placeupon consecrated ground, or under sacred roofs.” (Natural Hist. of Enthusiasm, p. 236.) “It is well known,” says Mosheim, “that the Jansenists and Augustinians have long pretended to confirm their doctrine by miracles; and they even acknowledge that these miracles have saved them when their affairs have been reduced to a desperate situation.” (Mosh. Eccl. Hist., cent. xvii., sect. 2.)

311.Isa. xxviii. 15.

312.Isa. xxx. 12–14.

313.Ezek. xiii. 23. Pascal does not, either here or elsewhere, when quoting from Scripture, adhere very closely to the original, nor even to the Vulgate version.

314.This was the name given to St. Francis de Sales, bishop and prince of Geneva, previously to his canonization, which took place in 1665.

315.Serm. 24 in Cantic.

316.These two postscripts have been often admired—the former for the author’s elegant excuse for the length of his letter; the latter for the adroitness with which he turns his apology for an undesigned mistake into a stroke at the disingenuousness of his opponents.

317.M. Nicole furnished the materials for this letter. (Nicole, iv. 324.)

318.Francis Annat, the same person formerly referred to atp. 102. He became French provincial of the Jesuits, and confessor to Louis XIV.

319.A threat, evidently, of administering to him theMentiris impudentissimeof the Capuchin, mentioned atp. 310.

320.The constitution—that is, the bull of Pope Alexander VII., issued in October 1656, in which he not only condemned the Five Propositions, but, in compliance with the solicitations of the Jesuits, added an express clause, to the effect that these had been faithfully extracted from Jansenius, and were heretical in the sense in which he (Jansenius) employed them. This was a more stringent constitution than the first; but the Jansenists were ready to meet him on this point; they replied that a declaration of this nature overstepped the limits of the papal authority, and that the pope’s infallibility did not extend to a judgment offacts.

321.The Five Propositions.—A brief view of these celebrated Propositions may be here given, as necessary to the understanding of the text. They were as follows:—I. That some commandments of God are impracticable even to the righteous, who desire to keep them, according to their present strength. II. That grace is irresistible. III. That moral freedom consists, not in exemption from necessity, but from constraint. IV. That to assert that the will may resist or obey the motions of converting grace as it pleased, was a heresy of the semi-Pelagians. V. That to assert that Jesus Christ died for all men, without exception, is an error of the semi-Pelagians. For a fuller explication of the controversy, the reader must be referred to the Introduction.

322.Pascal might say this with truth, for his only relatives being nuns, the tie of earthly relationship was considered by him as no longer existing; and beyond personal friendship, he had really no connection with Port-Royal. There is as little truth as force, therefore, in the taunt of a late advocate of the Jesuits, who says, in reference to this passage, “Pascal was intimately connected with Port-Royal, he was even numbered among its recluses; and yet, in the act of unmasking the presumed duplicity of the Jesuits, the sublime writer did not scruple to imitate it.” (Hist. de la Comp. de Jésus, par J. Cretineau-Joly, tom. iv. p. 54. Paris, 1845.)

323.“This book of theHoly Virginitywas a translation from St. Augustine, made by Father Seguenot, priest of the Oratory. So far, all was right; but the priest had added to the original text some odd and peculiar remarks of his own, which merited censure. As the publication came from the Oratory, a community always attached to the doctrine of St. Augustine, an attempt was made to throw the blame on those called Jansenists.” (Note by Nicole, iv. 332.)

324.“M. Jacques de Sainte-Beuve, one of the ablest divines of his age, preferred to relinquish his chair in the Sorbonne rather than concur in the censure of M. Arnauld, whose orthodoxy he regarded as beyond suspicion. He died in 1677.” (Note by Nicole.)

325.This work was entitled “On the Victorious Grace of Jesus Christ; or, Molina and his followers convicted of the error of the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians. By the Sieur de Bonlieu. Paris, 1651.” The real author was the celebrated M. de la Lane, well known in that controversy. (Note by Nicole.)

326.Réponse a quelques demandes, pp. 27, 47.

327.These judgments, orVota Consultorum, as they were called, have been often printed, and particularly at the end of theJournal de M. de St. Amour—a book essentially necessary to the right understanding of all the intrigues employed in the condemnation of Jansenius. (Note by Nicole.)

328.This wasFrancis du Bosquet, who, from being Bishop of Lodeve, was made Bishop of Montpelier in 1655, and died in 1676. He was one of the most learned bishops of his time in ecclesiastical matters. (Note by Nicole.)

329.Cavill, p. 35.

330.M. de Marca, an illustrious prelate, who was Archbishop of Toulouse, before he was nominated to the see of Paris, of which he was only prevented by death from taking possession. (Nicole.)

331.Nestorian heresy—so called from Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, in the fifth century, who was accused of dividing Christ intotwo persons; in other words, representing his human nature a distinct person from his divine. There is some reason to think, however, that he was quite sound in the faith, and that his real offence was his opposition to the use of the phrase, which then came into vogue,the Mother of God, as applied to the Virgin, whom he called, in preference,the Mother of Christ.

332.This was James Sirmond (the uncle of Anthony, formerly mentioned), a learned Jesuit, and confessor to Louis XIII. He was distinguished as an ecclesiastical historian. (Tableau de la Litt. Fran., iv. 202.)

333.The Monothelites, who arose in the seventh century, were so called from holding that there was butone willin Christ, his human will being absorbed, as it were, in the divine.

334.See Letter i.,p. 74.

335.The persecution here supposed was soon lamentably realized, and exactly in the way which our author seemed to think impossible.

336.Cavill, p. 23.

337.This postscript, which is wanting in the ordinary editions, appeared in the first edition at the close of this letter. From this it appears that, in consequence of the extreme desire of the Jesuits to discover the author, and their increasing resentment against him, he was compelled to send this letter to Osnabruck, an obscure place in Germany, where it was printed in a very small and indistinct character. Theprivilegesreferred to were official licenses to print books, which, at this time, when the Jesuits were in power, it was difficult for their opponents to obtain. Annat had published against the miracles of Port-Royal. Pascal was not permitted to publish in self-defence. At the same period, no Protestant books could be printed at Paris; they were generally sent to Geneva or the Low Countries for this purpose, or published furtively under fictitious names.

338.Decrees of the pope.

339.The papal constitution formerly referred to.

340.The Council of Trent is meant, when Pascal speaks ofthe council, without any other specification.

341.The reader may well be at a loss to see the difference between this and the Reformed doctrine. Some explanations will be found in the Historical Introduction.

342.This sentiment was falsely ascribed to Luther by the Council. (Leydeck, De Dogm. Jan. 275.)

343.Diego (or Didacus) Alvarez was one of the most celebrated theologians of the order of St. Dominick; he flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and died in 1635. He was brought from Spain to Rome, to advocate there, along with Father Thomas Lemos the cause of the grace of Jesus Christ, which the Jesuit Molina weakened, and indeed annihilated. He shone greatly in the famous Congregationde Auxiliis. (Nicole’s Note.)

344.His Treatisepassim, and particularly tom. 3, l. 8, c. 20.

345.“It may be proper here to give an explanation of the hatred of the Jesuits against Jansenius. When theAugustinusof that author was printed in 1640, Libertus Fromond, the celebrated professor of Louvain, resolved to insert in the end of the book of his friend, who had died two years before, a parallel between the doctrine of the Jesuits on grace, and the errors of the Marseillois or demi-Pelagians. This was quite enough to raise the rancor of the Jesuits against Jansenius whom they erroneously supposed was the author of that parallel. And as these fathers have long since erased from their code of morals the duty of the forgiveness of injuries, they commenced their campaign against the book of Jansenius in the Low Countries, by a large volume of Theological Theses (in folio, 1641), which are very singular productions.” (Note by Nicole.)

346.On the Book of Job, lib. viii., cap. 1.

347.Surpriseis the word used to denote the case of the pope when taken at unawares or deceived by false accounts.

348.Lib. i., in Dial.

349.De Consid. lib. ii., c. ult.

350.Alas! alas!

351.I. p. q. 68, a. l.

Transcriber’s NotesSome inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained.Itemized changes from the original text:p. ix: changed “Protestanism” to “Protestantism” (Protestantism, like the primitive Church,)p. xxxiii:changed “Sarbonne” to “Sorbonne” (Expelled from the Sorbonne,)changed “be” to “he” (for the eucharist, he insinuated)changed “Sarbonne” to “Sorbonne” (expulsion from the Sorbonne,)p. xxxv: changed “Sarbonne” to “Sorbonne” (before the Sorbonne was in dependence,)p. 94: changed “perfeet” to “perfect” (the most perfect harmony)p. 103: added missing quote mark based on context and 1875 Chatto & Windus edition (written in letters of gold.”)p. 104: changed “terrribly” to “terribly” (I am terribly afraid)p. 110: changed “nnmber” to “number” (the number of our offences)p. 143: changed “Filiutus” to “Filiutius” (as Filiutius says.)p. 146: added missing quote mark based on context and 1875 Chatto & Windus edition (gone into desuetude’)p. 168: changed “sylllogism” to “syllogism” (a syllogism in due form,)p. 204: added missing quote mark based on context and 1875 Chatto & Windus edition (than to live well.’)p. 209: inserted missing opening quote mark (‘if the confessor imposes) based on context as well as 1847 John Johnstone edition, 1875 & 1898 Chatto & Windus editionsp. 211: changed “was” to “has” (who has probed this question)p. 218: added missing quote mark based on context (sufficient with the sacrament.’)p. 286: changed “surmont” to “surmount” (to surmount external obstacles)p. 322: removed extraneous closing quote mark based on context and 1875 Chatto & Windus edition (adored in the sanctuary)p. 340: removed extraneous closing quote mark based on context and 1875 Chatto & Windus edition (you may profit by my example.)p. 345: removed extraneous closing quote mark based on context and 1875 Chatto & Windus edition (any more than his book?)p. 347: changed “M. de l aLane” to “M. de la Lane” based on 1890 Houghton, Osgood And Company edition.p. 349: added missing closing quote based on context and 1875 Chatto & Windus edition (purgare, sed facere”.)In the end-of-book publisher’s catalog, some repeated words were indicated by quote marks (”). These were replaced with the repeated word, for formatting reasons.

Transcriber’s Notes

Some inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained.

Itemized changes from the original text:

In the end-of-book publisher’s catalog, some repeated words were indicated by quote marks (”). These were replaced with the repeated word, for formatting reasons.

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